Enchanting and enchanted dolphins. An analysis of human/dolphin encounters.

In occidental countries, the figure of the dolphin is permeated with love. Not only do people love dolphins, but the dolphins' anthropophilia belongs to their natural history as well : they rescue men at sea, play in the bow waves of boats, and sometime develop enduring friendships with humans. People who have encountered dolphins in the open sea regularly speak about "falling in love" or feeling "pure love" from the dolphin ; others report telepathy, trance or mystic revelations. The emotions that people might experiment in an encounter with a dolphin are very powerful and embedded in numerous wondrous stories about dolphins.
The paper begins with first hand accounts of persons who have encountered dolphins. A description of the practices of the encounter follows. Then I discuss some distinctive features of the human/dolphin communication (ethological signals, interactional patterns, the awareness of an alien consciousness) which might be associated with the emotions involved. The last part of the paper addresses the main representations of the dolphin in occidental countries (a messenger, a saviour, a healer). Those representations play a crucial role when the emotions or experiences are to be given a meaning.